Gorgeous hike

October 1, 2010

Anchored at Waya island with IO, we also were able to catch up with our friends on Syzygy, and planned a little adventure.

We’d been eying the mountains around the bay since we arrived. Even cruising down the west side of the island before turning into the south bay, Niall and I sat on deck and daydreamed about what great hiking was waiting for us there… the ridges positively beckoned!

With the six crew on Syzygy, our group made a long snake up the hillside. It was short, but steep, and we were all sweaty and tired by the time we reached the top. As with the best hikes, though- stunning views make it well worth the effort.

Hiking back down is never as fun for me as going up. The real trick, it turned out, was to look away from the amazing views long enough to make sure you didn’t wipe out on the rocky hillside. Trail? Yeah, right…

The kids were amazing, and did great on what was a pretty strenuous half day adventure.

My primary camera is a Nikon D40, and I’m very happy with it (THANK YOU Taylor!!). Livia, I use a stitch program to make the panoramas- I’ve tried a few different freeware/shareware type programs, my favorite right now is called Hugin. Sherry, the underwater pictures are all done with a Fujifilm Z33 WP. I’m not really happy with it at the moment because it’s not working… seems to have gotten some water inside (in an underwater camera, imagine that!). I’d shop around… there are quite a few options available for a <$300 underwater point-n-shoot, you should be able to find something decent that is good to 10 meters. Our Fujifilm is only good to 3 meters, which… well, isn’t enough, even as a snorkeler! Several cruisers we’ve met have the Olympus underwater camera, and dislike it intensely, so shop around and read lots of review.